Meet VitaMe: Terri Coles

Our newest team member is Terri Coles, a health journalist with a passion for writing about food and nutrition. Read below to find out more about Terri’s background, career and desert-island foods.

Terri Coles

Describe your background and qualifications.

I ended up as a health reporter by accident—I interviewed for several open positions shortly after I finished university and got a job as an online editor for health content at Reuters. I may have stumbled my way into the gig but I quickly came to love it. After several years as an editor and writer with Reuters Health, I moved on to Chatelaine, where I was the digital health editor. After a stint in social media and a maternity leave, I began working as a full-time freelance writer focusing on lifestyle content. I love to write about health, nutrition, fitness, wellness, food trends, and all the ways we can make our lives healthier, happier, and a bit more fun. I am particularly passionate about helping people understand medical research: what it really reveals and how it applies to our everyday lives.

What motivates you?

I have always loved to learn. I was an eager student from my first day of kindergarten, and if I were independently wealthy I’d spend my time racking up endless academic credentials. Fortunately, when you write about science there’s always something new to learn—and to help other people learn in turn.

How would your mom/grandma/favorite auntie describe you?

I am close to my family, and they’ve always been a great support—even when it meant putting me on a plane as a teenager to fly halfway across the country to attend college in a town I’d never before seen. Given that experience, I think they’d describe me as smart, independent, and a little bit stubborn. Oh, and as a middling housekeeper.

There is so much information out there about supplements, and not all of it is helpful. I have the benefit of a decade as a reporter, with specialized education on reading scientific studies and knowledge of which outlets provide quality information about health and nutrition. Not everybody has that background, however—or the time to spend figuring out which of the many bottles on the shelf is their best option. I’m excited to help people get that information in a readable, relatable way through VitaMe.

If you were stranded on a desert island with only one food and one supplement, what would you take?

Vitamin B12, because I don’t think I’d be up for hunting my own wild boars, and chocolate, even if it might melt.

What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

I’m not much for roller coasters or adventure travel. I prefer to keep my bravery personal and not physical. I think it would go back to the above mention of leaving my small hometown of about 1,000 people to go to university in a city halfway across the country, where I literally did not know a single person. I was scared to do it, and I spent hours crying on my first night away from home, but I knew it was the way to meet my goals in the long term—so I got on the plane and kept moving forward.